The world of midnight
by Kirigakure no Seiryu
Summary: After their untimely demises following their attempts to kill Balalaika Hansel and Gretel find themselves on the beach of a small island in the south chinese sea, their bodies connected by a chain of purest white. What will await them there ?


The world of midnight

Summary: After their untimely demises following their attempts to kill Balalaika Hansel and Gretel find themselves on the beach of a small island in the south chinese sea, their bodies connected by a chain of purest white. What will await them there ? Rated M for foul language, violence and non-explicit twincest.

Disclaimer: I do not own Black Lagoon, Persona 4 or any other series that may make an appearance in this fanfic.

Chapter 01: A new dawn.

A small island somewhere in the south chinese sea, home to but a few hundred men and women as well as a handful of tourists that visit this peaceful island every so often to escape the stress of their daily lives. One day, this very island payed home to a phenomenon only visible to those who had the eyes to see it. The sand at the beach on the western shoreline of the island shifted lightly as something manifested itself just short of the small waves rolling to and fro on the beach. At first the figure was but a pale silhouette, but as time passed it began to grow in color and substance until it´s manifestation was complete, revealing itself as a young boy around ten or eleven years of age, dressed in a white undershirt and dark gray shorts, seemingly perfectly normal safe for his white hair and the long white chain connected to his body at chest level. The end of that chain began to grow longer and longer as it grew more solid, moving away from the young boy in a straight line, almost as if it was looking for something, until it suddenly stopped moving, having found what it was looking for. Shortly after the body of the young boy began to stir, very slowly, almost as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep. After rubbing the sleep from his pale lavender eyes he sat up to cast a confused gaze at his surroundings as his eyes began to adjust to the brightness.

"_Where...am I ? A beach ? Something tells me I'm not in Roanapur anymore."_ thought Hansel as he looked at his surroundings before his his eyes trailed to the white chain coming out of his chest.

"_Why is there a chain growing out of my body ? And... its moving around, like whatever is on the other end is stirring. That's weird..."_

Getting up on his feet, the young boy began to brush off the sand that was clinging to his clothes and body before placing both hands on the chain and pulling lightly, which achieved nothing save for a a slight stinging feeling where the chain was connected to his body. After a brief pause Hansel began to pull harder, slowly but steadily increasing his effort. Unfortunately, as he did so the pain at the spot where the chain left his body also increased until tears began to well up in his eyes and his body began to feel like he was pulling off a arm or a leg, at which point Hansel finally let go and sank to his knees, gasping for breath as the pain in his chest slowly disappeared.

"_Its no good. No matter how hard I try, it wont come off. But maybe its better that way. If I'm on that end of the chain, maybe sora mea is on the other end. We're always together, so it would only make sense that she'd also be here." _mused the boy as he got on his feet again and fixed the chain with his pale lavender eyes.

Hansel had only taken a few steps when another thought appeared in his mind. _"That's right, I've got my left hand back again.!" _the boy thought as he raised his left hand to take a good look at it. It looked just like it did before their fateful visit to Roanapur.

"_I remember now. It got shot off when I tried to to kill miss Balalaika, and-!"_

Hansel's thought stopped dead in its tracks as the memories of that moment, and the pain of having his kneecap shot out and losing a hand to a round from a sniper rifle hit him full force. He felt his right knee give in underneath him as his vision flashed with red and the sound of the large round passing right through his hand resounded in his ears. Shortly after the boy's body hit the (mercifully soft) sand.

"_It hurts! It huuurts! My hand feels like its going to explode! But...if sora mea is here to, then I mustn't keep her waiting."_

Slowly, very slowly Hansel rose from the ground, careful not to put too much weight on his aching knee before making his way down the beach again. It wasn't long until he saw a small figure with long white hair on the other end of the chain moving in his direction. As Hansel came closer, he realized that the figure was indeed his beloved sister, Gretel, holding the back of her head like suffering from a bad case of headache. Like her brother she too was only wearing her underwear, in her case an elegant white frilled underskirt and her black ribbon.

"There you are fratele meu. I knew I'd find you again if I followed this chain." said Gretel as she looked her dear brother in the eye.

"I was thinking the same sora mea. We're always together, so I knew you would be here with me."

"You don't look too well fratele meu. What´s the matter ?"

"It´s my hand. It feels like it´s going to come off ever since I remembered how I was shot by miss Balalaika´s men. My knee isn't much better. But you look like you're in pain yourself. Do you have a headache ?"

"Yes, ever since I remembered how I died. The last thing I remember is getting shot in the back of my head and seeing the beautiful sky above me and hearing the sound of the waves nearby as everything went dark. But that doesn't matter right now. What matters now is that you are in pain. Give me your hand fratele meu, I will make the pain disappear."

Instead of an answer, Hansel extended his aching hand towards his sister, who took it into her own left hand and knelt down as she softly breathed on it before lightly resting her lips against his aching palm. Almost as if following an unheard command, Hansel moved behind his sister and knelt down himself, lightly pressing his lips on the spot where the bullet had entered Gretel's skull. As he did so, Gretel began to caress his right knee. They remained like this for several minutes as they felt the pain slowly drain from their bodies until it was completely gone.

"I remember seeing other people on the beach while looking for you fratele meu. Maybe they can tell us where we are."

"That's a good idea. And look, there's already someone we can ask!" said Hansel pointing at a elderly man who looked like he spent a little too much time lying in the sun. As the twins approached the man they noticed that, despite the fact he was looking in their direction he didn't seem to notice them.

"Excuse me sir. Can you tell us the name of this island ? My sister and I just got here, and we dont really know where we are."

Instead of providing an answer the old man continued to wordlessly stare in their direction. After about a minute of waiting for an answer the two turned their attention towards each other, slightly disappointed by the man's lack of cooperation.

"...Looks like he can't hear us fratele meu."

"Either that, or he doesn't understand english. Too bad we never picked up chinese or whatever they are speaking around here." replied Hansel as he raised his hand to wave it in front of the old man's face, which achieved nothing. However, just as the boy lowered his arm again the man began to move, literally walking right through Hansel as he did so, who looked slightly shaken after the experience.

"Okay, _that_ was a little freaky. Though it might also come in handy at some point."

"So other people can neither see nor hear us, and we can't touch them either. I'm already missing my body."

"Yeah, me too. But at least the ground still supports us. And I really hope it stays that way." said Hansel as he looked at their feet, which were showing no signs of disappearing into the ground any time soon.

"We should try to find a place to stay for the night. I don't know we'll still get tired now that we are dead, but if we do we might as well find a place to sleep inside, don't you agree fratele meu ?"

"Of course you're right sora mea. As nice as it is on this island I don't really feel like sleeping outside every night." replied Hansel with a enthusiastic nod.

"I remember seeing a couple bungalows on my way here. Maybe we can find one that isn't occupied right now, just in case one of the people here _can_ see us. Shall we go there first ?"

"Lead the way sora mea."

The twins then began to make their way back to where Gretel had seen the bungalows, effortlessly falling into step as they walked along with Hansel to the right and Gretel to the left. They continued to walk silently along the beach for some time until Gretel directed her brother's attention to the sky above them.

"Fratele meu, look!"

The sun had only just begun to go down, casting a light shade of pink at the clouds. As one, the twins reached out for each other´s hands as they looked at the beautiful evening sky above while a light breeze tugged at their clothes and hair.

"It's beautiful...Come to think of it, we never took the time to look at the sky when we were alive, did we sora mea ?"

"No, we didn't. We were always too busy killing or playing with people to look at the sky." said Gretel with a slightly melancholic look before adding "But I guess we'll have much more time for that now."

"Yeah, but I still hope we'll find some other things to do too. Even if the sky here is beautiful, sitting around all day watching the clouds is going to get old at some point."

Gretel just nodded before she and her brother tore their view from the sky and continued down the shoreline, still holding hands as they walked along. Eventually a small number of bungalows came into view, each of them sitting atop a small hill. As the twins passed by the comfy- looking houses, they noticed that almost all of the bungalows were already occupied, their occupants ranging from businessmen and retirees to young families. At the very edge of the small cluster of bungalows the twins found a single house whose windows weren't lit. Their curiosity piqued, Hansel and Gretel stepped in front of the door before leaning forward to see if they would phase through the locked door. Just like the old man earlier, the door was no obstacle for the two, their heads and upper bodies going right through the door as if it didn't exist, at which point Hansel and Gretel were greeted by a smell they knew and loved.

"Do you smell that sora mea ? That smell...someone was killed here not too long ago." said Hansel, his voice trembling with excitement at the smell they had grown to love so much. By now it was but a faint trace of the smell of blood, but they had long learned to recognize that smell easily after it engraved itself into their memories.

"That would explain why this house isn't occupied. They probably just finished gathering all the evidence here. Eventually the owners of this house will make it available to their customers again, but until then it will do quite nicely." replied Gretel, sounding every bit as excited as her brother.

Following the smell, the twins quickly realized that it was coming from above, likely from one of the bedrooms or the bathroom. Both breathed a sigh of relief when they noticed that the stairs indeed supported them and their feet didn't phase right through them as they had thought. Still following the smell of blood, the two made their way into what turned out to be one of the bedrooms, with a single large bed standing in a corner of the room. Although there were no visible bloodstains left, their acute sense of smell led them to the bed. Although the bed sheet had probably been washed several times to remove all visible traces of blood, the smell was still noticeable enough to be picked up by the twins.

"This is the place where the murder took place. I'm sure someone was cut or stabbed here. I guess we should be grateful they didn't exchange the mattress when they were cleaning up in here." said Hansel as he lowered himself onto the bed, breathing a sigh of relief when he found that he didn't pass through it, although his attempt to pick up the blanket proved futile.

"This seems like a good place to sleep too. The mattress still looks so comfortable even though it's soaked with blood. I wonder what it will feel like to sleep on it." replied Gretel before covering her mouth as a small yawn escaped her. Without another word the twins lied down on the comfy-looking bed with their faces and bodies facing towards each other.

"Good night sora mea."

"Good night fratele meu."

The twins remained like this until they drifted off into sleep, holding each others hands and breathing the intoxicating smell rising from the mattress beneath them.

Author's note: Well, there you have it, the first chapter of my first fanfic. I hope you like it ^^

For those of you wondering why I chose to gave the two "soul pains", I did that to show how dramatic their last moments were to them. I'm sure most of you will agree that having your hand shot off and bleeding to death would leave a mark on pretty much everybody. The next chapter will see the introduction of some of Persona 4's cast members. Look forward to it ^_^

Special thanks to shado268 and Gaming Ikari for agreeing to proofread for me.


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